Friday, April 29, 2016

“But you knew he did this drug and you still went out with
him Stephie?” Jon said as he walked into
his dressing room.

“Daddy we’ve been together for years, I knew him when we
lived in Redbank. It was always just smoking a joint, this was all new to
me.” The tears were drying up and she started
to get on the defensive.

“A joint or two, Steph this is more than a few joints,
this was heroin and based on what that shits lawyer says, you got him into
heroin.” Jon repeated what the lawyer
had reported.

“Daddy believe me I had one pill, and he must have put
more in my beer. I had told him I would
only do one, since it was my first time.”
Stephanie told him.

“First time, Stephanie Rose, how many times have I told you
that it only takes one to kill you, even Lexie has told you about drugs?” Jon tried not to let his anger take over the
call. But she doesn’t seem to understand that drugs could have killed her, and
if she had any of the Bongiovi luck she wasn’t going to be kicked out of
school.

“I can see that now, I’ll never do it again, I promise
daddy.” Stephanie told Jon. Almost dying opened her eyes to how fragile
life was.

“Don’t promise Steph, I’ll keep you to that
promise.” Jon told his daughter. “I got to go to the arena, I’ll be home as
soon as we can so I can be there when you go before the Dean.”

Stephanie was shocked at how her father was talking to
her. The kid gloves were off and all
hell was about to break loose when he got home.

“Not to do drugs, I’ll never try them again, I promise
daddy.” She tried not to anger him anymore.
“Mommy Lexie has me on lock down and I broke up with Ryan.”

They hung up with love yous, Stephanie took a deep
breath, and this was an easy call. Once her dad got home she would be doing a
lot of babysitting as she will be grounded to the max.

Jon had slept through most of the flight, the closer to
home he got, the more worried he because of what he was walking into. He and Lexie had talked all the way to the
flight taking off. They would make a
unified front, he on the talk show circuit and her though her writers circuit. He looked out the window at the clouds
parting as they flew into Philly, his heart rate upped as the flight attendant
asked them to prepare to land soon.

Matt put the papers up he had been working on, got a
juice for Jon and a coffee.

“You get some sleep?”
Matt handed him the coffee and the juice.

“Some, not enough, but once I get home and though the
meeting with the Dean, I can crash and burn.”
He sipped the coffee and handed the juice back to Matt. “I was thinking
about rehab in California, the second one Richie was in that helped him, I’ve
looked into putting her there.”

“I read a lot of bad ones from the one in Utah. Bad reviews, but I’m still looking. I want
her clean.” Jon put his seatbelt and
pulled out his phone and showed Matt the one he found.

Matt told him he would look into it once he hit his house
then call him with the news.

They exited and went into Customs and right out to the
driver that would take them to the heliport, he was waiting for them. Jon climbed into the helicopter and Matt got
up with the driver and soon they were winging to the Heliport at Teterboro. One more hour and he would be home. Jon leaned his head back and closed his eyes,
home he was on the way home.

Touch down and the car was waiting on him, Jon grabbed
his go bag, he and Matt jogged to the car and they were on the way to his house

“Have him take us to the back.” Jon saw photographers out
front and the back would be quieter and safer.
“How do they know, the band is just now loading to come home.”

Punching the key code into the back door, he waited for
Matt to drive off before going in.
Taking the steps two by two he made it to the landing and hit the pass
code for the door and walked in. The
house was quiet, he went into the kitchen and checked on the four legged family
members and then dropped his bag outside the Trio’s room, checking each of the
beds and touching fingers and tucking them in.

“Welcome home Mr. Jon” Sally whispered.

“Thanks Sally, didn’t mean to wake you up.” Jon whispered.

“It’s ok, I thought I heard Lexie coming in to check. Livie
has a cold and she isn’t sleeping too well.” Sally told him. We were going to move her into the office so
the other two didn’t get it.”

“Go back to sleep Sally, these three will have you up
soon.” Jon left the room and picked up
his bag. Checking on his other kids, finding them all where they should be. He
finally made it to his and Lexie room.
Quietly walking in and dropped his bag in the closet, skimmed out of his
jeans and shirt and headed to the bed.
Slipping in he cuddled up to Lexie. Taking in a deep breath, taking in
the sweetness of her lotion she used at night and the smell of her shampoo.

“Welcome home Rockstar.”
Lexie sighed. Feeling him relax behind her, she smiled. It was so good
he was home, and that he would be there for the last meeting. She felt his breath on her next and shivered
a little. Knowing the alarm would be going off soon, she let him just hold her
till he relaxed and fell back asleep.

Jon rolled over and noticed the bed was empty, stretching
he listened to the noises in the house. Kids getting ready for school, one of
the trio was not happy and his wife trying to keep them all quiet for him to
sleep. How he missed this being on the
road. Getting out of bed he scratched
his chest and yawned. Pulling on his
discarded jeans and a tee shirt he went to greet his family.

The first thing that hit him was the smell of coffee,
then bacon. Walking into the kitchen,
where he thought he would find his wife, instead he found his little brother frying
bacon.

“I see you’ve been domesticated.” Jon teased Tony.

“Yeah, I sort of help out when I can. Now that you’re home I can head to mom and
dads.” He took the last of the bacon out
of the pan and started cracking eggs. “Cullen
is into everything and the puppies are his main target when he’s down here.”

It dawned on Jon how much he’s missed listening to Tony. They weren’t due to go out on tour till after
the holidays, but he would have to do damage control over this over dose
problem. He could hit all the New York talk
shows and he might have to go to Los Angeles to hit the late night shows.

“Hey Dad, welcome home.”
Jesse said as he came into the kitchen.

He was followed by Jacob and Romeo, who were excited to
see their dad. He heard all about what
had been going on at school and sports.
Jesse hooked up Snowball and put the puppies in a carry bag and took
them out for their morning romp.

Lexie came in with Cullen and put him in the high chair.

“Good morning Rockstar.”
She got the tray clicked in and turned to look at Jon. “Look Cull
there’s daddy.”

Cullen smiled at Jon and made noises that might have been
daddy or momma it was still garbled.
Sally came in with Olivia and Maddie, who squealed out for their daddy,
which made Jon smile. Lexie cut up a
banana and put a third on each try while Sally got sippy cups for them. More banana was smashed on their face as got
into their mouths.

“Okay boys, you got twenty minutes to get down for the
bus.” Lexie finally got her cup of
coffee and some bacon. Sipping her
coffee she looked up at Jon. “You ready
for the day?”

“As I ever will be, I got Matt setting up some talk
shows, I might have to go to LA for a week.
Martin coming by before we go?” Jon got up for another cup of coffee and
snagged some bacon and put it between a slice of bread.

“Martin will be here at ten and we leave at twelve to
head to Hamilton.” Lexie told him and
she got another cup of coffee. She put
her cup down and turned Jon to face her.
“I missed you.” She leaned in and
gave him a kiss.

Jon leaned into the kiss and put his hands on her hips
and pulled her in closer. Just about then they heard the kids coming down for
school.

“Take the boys out for the bus, I need to help get these
three cleaned up and I need a shower.”
Lexie stayed snuggled in his arms for a little while longer.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The doctor informed them, that Stephanie would be
discharged tomorrow. Martin would meet them at the house to bring them up to
speed. Jon on the other hand would be
home four days later and he wasn’t too happy about that idea. He wanted to be
there when Martin was there to let them know what was going to happen.

Stephanie was up in her room, while Lexie and Tony were
in the living room when the door opened and Jesse, Jacob and Romeo rushed in.
They stopped in their tracks, shocked to see their mom and their Uncle Tony, dropping
books and book bags on the hall table.

“Hey Guys, snacks are on the counter, I picked up some
goodies on the way home.” Lexie told
them from her cocoon on the end of the sofa.

“I’ll be here till your dad comes in. We have to go back to
the college on Monday, and your dad will be home on Tuesday. I’ll be heading back to California for a
while, but I’m always a call away, right Ro?”
Tony hugged Romeo and made sure Lexie understood that the last part was
for her too.

Lexie nodded her head and watched the boys head off to
the kitchen for snacks.

“Thanks Tone, you’re the best little brother I could ever
ask for.” She uncurled from the sofa and
got up to hug her brother in law.

“We have about four kinds, there’re also snacks. The boys just got home and they’re in there
raiding the fridge.” Lexie smiled and
watched her go into the kitchen. When
she heard the boys and then her laugh, Lexie sighed.

“Everything’s gonna be fine Lex, you got to believe it.” Tony said softly.

“Yeah, I know.” She turned to him. “It’s got to be, we have six other kids to
raise.”

Martin showed up the next day, and it didn’t look
good. Drug possession, expulsion, and
rehab were a few words thrown around.
Jon didn’t like not being there, but speaker phone was the closest thing
for him right now. Two more days and he would be home, and he would do what
needed to be done. Lexie and Martin
would go to the college with Stephanie and be with her when she appears before
the student court and when she had to go before the Dean. Martin had made sure
any court dates would happen when he was home.

The press finally found someone else to harass for a
while, but he knew that once he got home he would have to make the rounds of
talk shows. He would make plans to take
the family to the Hamptons on fall break, then he was taking Lexie to London.

Matt stopped at the hotel bar and grabbed a beer,
spreading out the itinerary for the next two days. He got the last two seats in first class from
London to Philly, then chopper to Kennedy, driver to the house. They would drive up to the college
themselves. There they better keep that little
shit of a boyfriend away from Jonny, and maybe
I could get Uncle Guido to take him on a long walk off a short pier.

He ignored his cell for about an hour’s worth of calls
from his big brother. Speaking about him, he just about made him pull what
little was left of his hair out. Downing
the dredges of his beer, he pulled all the paperwork back into the folder and
headed out the bar and to the elevator.

Jon was on his second lap of twenty around the suite when
he heard the key in the lock.

“About fucking time.”
Jon mumbled as Matt came in and sat the folder down on the table.

“I just got off the phone and waited for the fax to come
through. Contrary to your beliefs, things don’t just happen when you snap your
fingers, it takes a little bit of time.”
Matt walked over to the mini bar and pulled out a bottle of water.

“But you got it done.”
Jon walked over and started riffling through the file on the table.

“Damn it Jonny don’t mess up the whole damn folder. Give
me a fucking second to swallow some damn aspirin for this Bon Fucking Jovi
headache I got.” He grabbed the folder from Jon and tried to put it all back
together.

“Fuck it Matt, this is my daughter’s life and I’m in
fucking London.” Jon slammed his hand on
the table, then regretted it as the pain rain up his arm to his shoulder.

“That’s it asshole, break you fucking hand before the
last shows.” Matt sat down at the table
and began to put the papers back in order. “We leave right after the last
number, so no multiple encores or will never make the flight.”

Jon sat down and rubbed his hand under the table.

“Okay one encore and I’m out, we can do Prayer and I can
leave, quick run through the shower and out the door.” Jon grabbed his cell and made a quick change to
the set list for tonight’s show.

“Do you really need a shower? We can wipe you down with
diaper wipes in the limo.” Matt gave him
a look that said no shower.

“I’m not flying home a stinking mess.” Jon gasped.

“We’ll hose you down with water once you get off the
stage, then dry you off and dump you in the limo.” Matt tried to state it with a straight face. “I can arrange for you to shower at the
airport. We have two hours to get from
here to the airport shower and board the flight.”

“Okay shower at airport and then sleep across the
Atlantic to Philly, Chopper to Kennedy, finally car to home.”

Knock on the door got Matt up and to the door, it was the
pre-show meeting. They all came in, hit the bar and dropped their notebooks on
the table.

“Okay Kidd, what’s the news from home.” Richie flipped to an empty page in his tour
book.

“Steph’s home, the lawyer came by to take her to the
student court, they send the recommendations to the Dean.” Jon told Richie. “The police will not prosecute since she is a
first time offender and something about charges being dropped due to a local
law that prohibits prosecution of people who have a drug overdose. Now the college could suspend her or kick her
out.”

“So that’s good, the not prosecuting her?” David said as he took the top off his water
bottle.

“Yeah, that’s good.
I just can’t believe we didn’t see this coming.” Jon ran his hands through his hair. “Pot I could understand, thought we had
nipped that bud, but heroin, what was she thinking?”

“She wasn’t, you said her boyfriend gave it to her.” Richie told him.

“He gave her more than she took herself.” Jon told him.
“Enough about this, I’ll deal with it when I get home.”

They went over the set list for the next two nights. Jon
told them he was leaving after the last show, one encore.

They left to go eat and then head to the arena, Jon
called home.

“Hey Rockstar, on the way to work?” Lexie said as she adjusted her laptop over
and looked over at Stephanie who was reading on her tablet.

“Yeah, one more show, I wanted to send you the flight
times. I’ll have Matt fax it to you when
we get there.” Jon said as the streets
of London rushed past.

“Good, you want to talk to Steph? She’s right here,” She looked up at
Stephanie, who had a shocked look on her face. “Steph, your dad wants to talk
to you.” Lexie got up and took the phone
over to her. Once she took it, Lexie
left the room to go check on the kids.

“Hi Daddy.”
Stephanie said as she felt tears stinging the back of her eyelids.